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How UNC Got Its Carolina Blue and White Colors
From 1904: Note that Ardell was in Philantropic, and Archer was in Dialectic. Almost every student at that time was in one of these groups.
by Charly Mann
It was not brawn, but brains that gave the University of North Carolina its colors. At one time intellectual sport was much more popular in Chapel Hill than athletic challenge. From almost the beginning of University the Dialectic and Philanthropic Literary Societies were competing debating organizations. The Dialectic or “Di's” color was light blue, and the Philanthropic or “Phi's” was white. During debates, social events, and commencements, students wore the color of their group. These groups held regular debates against teams from universities like John Hopkins, Vanderbilt, and Georgia.
Almost every student belonged to one of these societies, so to remain impartial at formal University events, professors and school officials wore both colors. It was almost ninety years after this tradition started that in 1888 UNC had an athletic team that competed against another university. By this time the combination of light blue and white already were entrenched as representing the University, and was the obvious choice of colors for the school’s athletic teams.
This is the room on campus where the debates were held at this time
In some way we have progressed a lot in the last two hundred years, but I think it might be better to be known as the University with the best debating team rather than basketball team. Even up to 1910, the school’s debating victories were more a source of student pride than its athletic success.
This is the group that gave Carolina its light blue color
This is the group that was represented by white
Comments:
Gavin Hickey
2:34 PM Sat 4/4/2009
I love that the Dialectics gave UNC the blue of the sky.
Kimberly Andrews
3:18 PM Fri 4/3/2009
I got to your site looking for information on the Rat, but I think this entire place is great. The facts in this particular piece will probably help me win a bet soon with my know-it-all fanatic Carolina father-in-law.
Karen Class of 2010
2:00 PM Fri 4/3/2009
I'm afraid most of my fiends at Carolina could neither spell or pronounce the names of these two groups. I'm a Junior English major.
Stacey Waters
11:10 AM Fri 4/3/2009
I wonder how we changed our perspective so much over the course of the last one hundred years about academics and sports. My Dad has told me that before the 1950s college teams were usually just made up of student athletes at the vast majority of schools.
Bill Chamberlain
10:24 AM Fri 4/3/2009
Do you remember the GE College Bowl? Teams of the brightest students from opposing Universities competed on television each week to determine the most academically gifted school. It was a very popular show; broadcast in prime time on Sunday evenings. The questions were much harder than today's JEOPARDY show. Too bad something like this is not popular today.
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Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
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Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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The Di and Phi still exist. They meet on every Monday night that classes are in session on the top floor of New West Hall.